Cartagena

August 29th - September 3rd, 2016

Cartagena, Colombia

My past week - Flights, sites, delights, bites, insights, highlights, ALRIGHT!

Our “Labor Day” trip to Cartagena, Colombia was incredible.  Exploring fortress tunnels, experiencing “old town” by carriage, sipping piña colada’s on a white sand beach, jet skiing in the Caribbean Sea, a crazy private salsa dance class, OH! and that mud massage in a mythical volcano turned tourist attraction.  We entered the thick slate gray murky pool, floated around or bobbed upright, never able to touch the bottom and came out as true ‘muddy buddies’.  Haha.  We recommend it!

Ironically our Labor Day trip ended before Labor Day.  So this morning as we woke up in Florida and drove to church Lane asked me…so, what do you want to do for Labor Day?  I think we’ll have lunch in Key Largo and have a swim.  What are your plans?

There is no better pattern of life anywhere, no surer way to find peace and the path forward, than by following Jesus Christ.  He alone has the power to make our lives more heavenly.  

August 2016

Final days in the big house.

8 more ‘sleeps’ and we are outta here.

  Here is the way I want to remember it...

Our 60 day renovation of Harvey continues.  We bought a Wagner Power Paint Sprayer and made a huge mess with it both here and inside Harvey.  

In the middle of the renovation we are also forced to downsize.

The first thing sold was my hammock.  Then little by little stuff kept walking out the door.

Until finally we had a yard sale.  Sold everything but the yard ;o}

    We had enough profits to pay for the sodas we handed out for free.  

And maybe buy paint and curtains for “Harvey”.

Meanwhile back inside it's getting harder to find a place to sit.

Here is one of our first meals in Harvey.  

Cornflakes in a bag.  My husband is a good sport.

One of these books did not make 'the cut'.  But neither did our treasured Manhattan Temple Door Table, the German Porcelain Eagle, or the 3'x6' family wall portrait.  

Time out!  

Mormon Night at the Marlin’s Game

There’s always time for baseball…or a nap ;o}

I had a terrific birthday (after my stop to see the oral surgeon).  

Lunch and dinner NOT prepared by me.  

A pedicure.  

A shopping spree. 

Phone calls, emails, texts and cards.  

A cake.  Oh, that chocolate cake!  

I am so spoiled.

I had one last walk and breakfast with Nicole before she left for LDS Business College.

Is it really possible to have a happy marriage?

     "Let me declare unequivocally, absolutely, and adamantly that not only is there such a thing as a happy marriage, but happy marriages are the rule, not the exception.

     Sis Holland and I are living proof that you cannot just be happy but that you an be ecstatically happy.  You can be just movingly happy in all the right ways, for all the right reasons.  So I want everybody to dismiss the idea that somehow this is a mountain that can’t be climbed, it’s a river that can’t be crossed, that there are too many difficulties to address marriage in this day or any day.  

That is simply not true.

     You have to work at a marriage.  

Every good thing that I know of in this world you have to work at.

     God will help you.  Of all the things in this world that He will help you with, He will help you with your marriages and your families, because it matters to Him at least as much as it matters to you."

—Elder JRH

HARVEY

The Howell RV

Harvey

----- A pictorial -----

60 day renovation

Would you believe that Harvey has 56 cabinet / drawer fronts!? 

We are grateful we had a garage for our paint booth.

Each door was reattached with 16 screws.  
It was like putting together a giant jig-saw puzzle.  

It was time consuming but oh so satisfying!

I finally caved and ordered this overpriced, peel’n'stick paper, 

imported from South Korea.  I even had extra to stick behind 

the bathroom sink.  Peel and stick backsplashes are all the 

rage in the RV world.  Just ask our neighbors.

This is the last major project of my life.  

We love the results.

But never again!

July 2016

Greetings to our precious, poignant, posterity!

Spent time with Tom’s family for 4th of July bike parade prep, 

gourmet pizza and Aunt Shalaun’s cinnamon rolls. 

                                                            (Adie and I are twins, born 55 years apart)

We visited and played with Lee and Spencer, and cuddled Russell.  

Then we accepted an invite for a late dinner with Steph and Jerel.

We popped in to thank the Gerbers for loaning us a self-pitching tent.  

Stayed at the New Howell Hotel 

(Lincoln & Carrie's new home in Daybreak)

The 4th was glorious.

The weeks after the Creek reunion we visited personally 

with 5 of Lane's siblings and all 9 of our Howell kids living in 

Utah ending with the Kelley family. It was an eventful trip.

We returned to Florida and started thinning out our "stuff".  I said good-bye to my hammock...it was the first item to sell as we rid ourselves of most of our earthly possessions. Really, our kids should be thanking us, this is most often their task after parents hoard newspapers, Kerr canning jars and scraps of foil for 20 years. 

There is a baby at my house!

And it all started with a trip to the airport last Wednesday.

G’pa Lane told me we were picking up a work client at the Ft Lauderdale airport so I was walking curbside with a sign for “Martha Nyasi”.  In the distance I saw a lady with a baby.  She waved in my direction.  I looked over my shoulder to see who she was waving down.  I was thinking “where is her ride?”   As I got closer, the woman began to resemble…JAMI!  My daughter Jami !...and my G'daughter Danika !  I was totally shocked.  I kept thinking that I still needed to find “Martha".  I wandered back to find Lane waiting in the car to let him know that I saw Jami.  It all happened in slow motion.  At some point I stopped searching for Martha and offered Jami and Danika a ride home.  Dumbfounded!

After Danika got acquainted with G’pa Lane we hung out at home, 

splashed in the backyard pool, visited the Keys, 

climbed a lighthouse, and swam in the Atlantic ocean.  

Sunday Danika and Jami helped me make a 'fruit' cake 

for fireside refreshments.  (Thank you Pinterest)  

My advice to my family - press forward as you grow a testimony of 

Christ that will strengthen you all the days of your life.

It was over all too soon.  

Jami and Danika flew home to Cleveland 

and back to the arms of Chris. 

Other news:

                         ~  Our 5th-Wheel got delivered to our pad July 15th.  

                         ~  We began renovations on “Harvey" 

                             (who needs a fireplace in Florida anyway?)

                         ~  Held a yard sale.  Sold everything but the yard ;o}

                         ~  We will move to Harvey August 9th.

                         ~  We are getting more excited each day. I am dead serious!